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SEVEN GREAT HYMNS 



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The White House. 



Seven Great Hymns 



By GUY CARLETON LEE 



Reprinted from THE BALTIMORE SUN, by permis- 
sion of The A. S. Abell Co. 



BALTIMORE 

Clemmitt— Printer, No. 4 E. Lombard Street 

1916 






Feeling myself deeply indebted to 

B. A. ABBOTT 

for much of the inspiration that has led me to 

love and appreciate "the true, the beautiful, 

and the good," I take pleasure in 

dedicating this reprint to him. 

Thos. Clem mitt, Jr. 



THESE Articles, by Dr. Lee, were printed, 
during the Lenten Season of 1905, in 
the very interesting Literary Department of 
The Baltimore Sun, conducted by him at 
that time. I enjoyed them very much, feel- 
ing that they were an expression of the state 
of the public mind, chastened, as it was, by 
the great fire of the year before. I was 
surprised, however, upon speaking of them 
to others, to find that they seemed to have 
attracted no attention whatever. This, also, 
I attributed to the fire, — everybody being 
then engrossed in the work and worry of 
rebuilding. So I clipped them out of the 
paper, and laid them aside, in the hope that 
I might sometime find a way to bring them 
before the few who would appreciate them. 
I now send them out, without comment, as 
a Christmas Souvenir, to a few friends and 
personal acquaintances, and to some others 
whom I know only by name, with the wish 
that they may be interesting and helpful. 

Thos. Clemmitt, Jr. 
Christmas, 1916. 



Dies Irae Page 13 

De Contemptu Mundi "25 

The Stabat Mater "49 

The Vexilla Regis "65 

Veni Sancte Spiritus 



79 
Veni Creator Spiritus 

Te Deum Laudamus "95 

Cantemus Cuncti " 109 



FOREWORD. 



THE world has many thousand hymns, 
and of these a score are of such a 
character as to deserve rank as the great 
hymns of universal literature. In this sea- 
son of Lent — a season which is each year 
more widely observed by those who pro- 
fess and call themselves Christians — a pre- 
sensation of the greatest of the hymns of the 
Christian Church is appropriate. This not 
only for their religious significance, but 
because of their literary value ; an attribute 
too often lost sight of by the general reader, 
who does not appreciate the fact that a 
knowledge of the masterpieces of hymno- 
graphy is as essential to a broad literary 
education as a knowledge of the master- 
pieces of short-story composition. Were 
we obliged to search the treasures of the 
various hymnodies, the task of selecting the 
seven great hymns — one for each Wednes- 
day in Lent — would be appalling, and years 
might well be occupied in the task ; but> 
fortunately, the responsibility of selection 
and the labor of appraisement has been 



io Seven Great Hymns 

lightened, for the concensus of critical opin- 
ion has distinguished a bare score of hymns 
as pre-eminently worthy of the first rank, 
and from these jewels of hymnography we 
choose the seven that to us most strongly 
appeal. 

There is a vast literature in the field of 
hymnology. The hymnodies of the world, 
appealing as they do to both sentiment and 
intellect, have engrossed the thought of 
many scholars. We may not today discuss 
the periods of production, nor present even 
a sketch of the various stages of religious 
development by which have been produced 
the hymns that have won an abiding place 
in the hearts of the people. There was a 
classical period, both Roman and Hellenic, 
which antedated the era of the Hebrew 
hymnody. There may be defined an Eastern 
as well as a Western hymnody, and sub- 
divisions : German, Franch and British may 
as readily be made as Catholic, Lutheran, 
Episcopalian or Dissenting. But the study 
of hymnodies in their creative and forma- 
tive phases must be postponed for another 
year, and the present series rigidly confined 
to this subject — Seven Great Hymns. 



I. 

dies ir;e. 



DIES IR7E. 

HEN a lad, our favorite poet was Sir 
Walter Scott, and we heartily agree 
with Goodwin Smith, in his present contro- 
versy with Sir Arthur Symons, that the 
appeal of Scott was the most powerful of 
the poetical influences which literature con- 
tained for the youth of the third quarter of 
the nineteenth century. Of Scott's poetry 
there are stanzas which insistently press 
upon our memory, and among them is this 
from The Lay of the Last Minstrel : 

The Mass was sung, and prayers were said, 
And solemn requiem for the dead ; 
And bells toll'd out their mighty peal 
For the departed spirits' weal ; 
And ever in the office close 
The hymn of intercession rose ; 
And far the echoing aisles prolong 
The awful burden of the song — 

Dies Irae, Dies Ilia ! 

Solvet saeclum in favilla. 

Throughout boyhood, youth and manhood 
these lines have been before us, and the 



14 Seven Great Hymns 

awful majesty of the Dies Irce has been 
ever the most impressive of poetical forces. 
Well may it be, for by universal opinion 
the Dies Irce is the greatest of the hymns 
of the Christian Church. It is so regarded 
by all denominations, and may be used in 
any sect with the same fitness as by the 
church which gave it to the world. Its in- 
fluence has been incalculable and has not 
been limited by country or creed. 

The seventeenth century saw, in 163 1, the 
completion, by Pope Urban VIII, of the 
hymnal which is today the accepted version 
of the Roman communion. The labors of 
the editors during various pontificates had 
resulted in the recasting of many hymns, 
and through this revision we have lost the 
original versions of not a few of the hymns 
of the classical period, but, fortunately, one 
of the hymns which escaped the hands of 
the revisers was the Dies Irce. It was in 
the thirteenth century, some put the date at 
1250, when a Franciscan, Thomas of Ce- 
lano, best known as the friend and biog- 
rapher of St. Francis de Assisi, impressed 
by the lines in Zephaniah I, 15 (Vulgate), 
wrote the hymn Dies Irce, of which it has 



Dies Irm 15 

been said by the learned author of Christ 
in Song: "The secret of the irresistible 
power of the Dies Irce lies in the awful 
grandeur of the theme, the intense earnest- 
ness and pathos of the poet, the simple 
majesty and solemn music of its language, 
the stately meter, the triple rhyme and the 
vowel assonances chosen in striking adapta- 
tion to the sense — all combining to produce 
an overwhelming effect, as if we heard the 
final crash of the universe, the commotion 
of the opening graves, the trumpet of the 
archangel that summons the 'quick and the 
dead,' and as if we saw the King of Tre- 
mendous Majesty seated on the throne of 
justice and mercy and ready to dispense 
everlasting life or everlasting woe/ 5 

There are several versions of the hymn, 
and many translations. The version known 
as that of Paris is that generally accepted. 
The hymn has received many additions dur- 
ing the seven centuries of its use, but it has 
not retained them, and we have it today in 
its original form. Translations into English 
abound, and of these the more acceptable 
are by Irons, French, Cole and Dix, and of 
these the best is perhaps that of Irons, 



1 6 Seven Great Hymns 

although to the layman the most effective 
rendering, although it is a paraphrase and 
not a translation, is that of Sir Walter 
Scott, which is as follows : 

That day of wrath, that dreadful day ! 
When heaven and earth shall pass away. 
What power shall be the sinner's stay? 
How shall he meet that dreadful day? 

When shriveling like a parched scroll 
The flaming heavens together roll. 
When louder yet, and yet more dread, 
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead ! 

Oh ! on that day, that wrathful day 
When man to judgment wakes from clay, 
Be Thou the trembling sinner's stay, 
Though heaven and earth shall pass away ! 

The translators of the poem have greatly 
differed in their renderings. For example, 
the original of Thomas of Celano is : 

Dies Irae, Dies Ilia ! 
Solvet saechim in favilla, 
Teste David cum Sybilla. 

This was translated by Coles : 



Dies Irje ly 

Day of wrath, that day of burning! 
Seer and Sibyl speak concerning — 
All the world to ashes turning. 

Johnson wrote : 

Day of wrath, that day of burning! 
Earth shall end, to ashes turning; 
Thus sing Saint and Seer discerning. 

Roscommon has it : 

The day of wrath, that dreadful day, 
Shall the whole world in ashes lay, 
As David and the Sibyls say. 

Crawshaw rendered it as : 

Hear'st thou, my soul, what serious things 
Both the Psalm and Sibyl sings, 
Of a sure Judge, from whose sharp ray, 
The world in flames shall fly away. 

Iron's version is : 

Day of wrath! Oh, day of mourning! 
See ! once more the Cross returning, 
Heaven and earth in ashes burning! 

Slosson makes the Latin read : 



1 8 Seven Great Hymns 

Day of wrath! Of days that day! 
Earth in flames shall melt away, 
Psalmist thus and Sibyl say. 

Dix has it : 

Day of vengeance, without morrow ! 
Earth shall end in flame and sorrow, 
As from Saint and Seer we borrow. 

Macaulay translated it thus : 

On that great, that awful day, 
This vain world shall pass away. 
Thus the Sibyl sang of old, 
Thus hath holy David told. 

These translations show the difficulty of 
the task of rendering the Dies Irce into 
English. The form of the Latin verse, when 
cast into English words and rhymes, is for- 
eign to our ears. We are unable to satisfac- 
torily render the double rhyme, and this 
''majestic and solitary" hymn, which has 
sounded "so clear and deep that its softest 
tones are heard throughout Christendom," 
must be read in the original if all its im- 
pressiveness is to be appreciated. But as 
to most readers a knowledge of Latin is 



Dies Ir.e 19 

denied, we append the complete text of Dr. 
Iron's version, and doing so we regret that 
it seems inexpedient to print the far more 
effective Latin text of Thomas of Celano, 
whose majestic lines have, in their sonorous 
grandeur, sounded through the centuries 
wherever the religion of Christ has found 
a foothold. 

Day of Wrath ! O Day of Mourning ! 
See ! once more the Cross returning, 
Heav'n and earth in ashes burning! 

O what fear man's bosom rendeth, 
When from Heav'n the Judge descendeth, 
On whose sentence all dependeth ! 

Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth, 
Through earth's sepulchers it ringeth, 
All before the throne it bringeth ! 

Death is struck, and nature quaking, 

All creation is awaking, 

To it's Judge an answer making ! 

Lo, the Book, exactly worded ! 
Wherein all hath been recorded; 
Thence shall judgment be awarded. 

When the Judge His seat attaineth, 
And each hidden deed arraigneth, 
Nothing unaveng'd remaineth. 



20 Seven Great Hymns 

What shall I, frail man, be pleading, 
Who for me be interceding, 
When the just are mercy needing? 

King of majesty tremendous, 
Who dost free salvation send us, 
Fount of pity ! then befriend us ! 

Think ! Kind Jesu, my salvation, 
Caus'd Thy wondrous Incarnation ; 
Leave me not to reprobation ! 

Faint and weary Thou hast sought me, 
On the Cross of suffering bought me ; 
Shall such grace be vainly brought me? 

Righteous Judge of retribution, 

Grant Thy gift of absolution, 

Ere that reck'ning day's conclusion ! 

Guilty, now I pour my moaning, 
All my shame with anguish owning; 
Spare, O God, Thy suppliant, groaning! 

Thou, the sinful woman savest, 
Thou, the dying thief forgavest; 
And to me a hope vouchsafest ! 

Worthless are my pray'rs and sighing, 
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying, 
Rescue me from fires undying! 



Dies Irje 21 

With Thy favor'd sheep, place me, 
Nor among the goats abase me; 
But to Thy right hand upraise me. 

While the wicked are confounded, 
Doom'd to flames of woe unbounded, 
Call me ! with Thy saints surrounded. 

Low I kneel, with heart submission ; 
See, like ashes, my contrition ; 
Help me, in my last condition ! 

Ah! that day of tears and mourning! 
From the dust of earth returning, 
Man for judgment must prepare him; 
Spare ! O God, in mercy, spare him ! 

Lord, who didst our souls redeem, 
Grant a blessed Requiem ! Amen. 



II. 

DE CONTEMPTU MUNDI. 



DE CONTEMPTU MUNDI. 

gERNARD de MORLAS, a member of 
the famous community of Cluny, and 
of parentage now unascertainable, wrote in 
the twelfth century a number of religious 
poems, of which five survive. Of these the 
most noteworthy is De Contemptu Mundi. 
This poem, although in itself a satire of the 
most scathing variety, contains the most 
beautiful descriptions of Heaven that are to 
be found in verse. This poem is not, as is 
rightly pointed out by leading commenta- 
tors, in itself a hymn, but it is, on the other 
hand, in its translation, a casket of hymns. 
Its verses have not only furnished inspira- 
tion, but have given form to a score of the 
hymn-writers whose work has won the ap- 
plause of the world. No better example of 
this can be cited than the words of Neale, 
whose version we quote below. Dr. Neale 
says : "It would be most unthankful did I 
not express my gratitude to God for the 
favor He has given some of the cantos 
made from the poem, but especially Jeru- 



26 Seven Great Hymns 

salem the Golden. It has found a place in 
some twenty hymnals, and it is of almost 
universal use on religious occasions to which 
it is appropriate. We may add that it has 
use in Catholic as well as Protestant serv- 
ices. Trench, in his Sacred Latin Poetry, 
gives De Contemptu Mundi such enthusi- 
astic and yet discriminating praise that to 
him must be ascribed the honor of having 
introduced the work in its beauty to the 
attention of the Protestant Church. 

We may say, however, that the poem had, 
because of its satirical quality, been since 
1483, the date of its publication at Paris, a 
favorite weapon for those whose religious 
activity led to virulent attacks upon Rome. 
But we may in these days read the work for 
its profound piety, for its ecstatic fervor, 
and for its unalloyed devotion; for it has 
been rightly said "De Contemptu Mundi is 
the most lovely, in the same way that the 
Dies Irce is the most sublime, and the Stabat 
Mater the most pathetic of mediaeval 
poems." 

"De Contemptu Mundi/' in its original 
Latin, is; a masterpiece of dactylic composi- 
tion. It is well nigh untransferable to Eng- 



De Contemptu Mundi 27 

lish. Numerous attempts at literal transla- 
tion have had but indifferent results. It has 
remained for a distinguished Protestant 
translator of mediaeval poetry to give to the 
words of the Cluniac the rendering that has 
won the heart of the world. Dr. John 
Mason Neale, of England, he whom Nott, 
contrasting him with Bernard, aptly calls 
"the scholar of Cambridge," seems in his 
paraphrase of the 4,000 lines of Bernard to 
have accomplished his greatest success in 
the setting over of Latin hymns into Eng- 
lish. Discarding all those satirical elements 
which, without doubt, were considered at 
the time of the production of the poem as 
its chief merit, Dr. Neale has preserved 
those wonderful descriptions of Heaven 
which to the devout immortalize Bernard's 
work. The translator has in no wise striven 
to follow the meter of the original. In thus 
breaking away from the limitations of form, 
Dr. Neale has cast aside the fetters that 
have prevented the free expression of the 
imagery that is the chief merit of the poem. 
We may illustrate by quoting the opening 
lines of Bernard: 



28 Seven Great Hymns 

Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus, 
Ecce minacetir imminet arbiter ille surpremus. 
Imminet, imminet et mala terminet, sequa coronet, 
Recta remuneret, anxia liberet, aethera donet, 
Auserat aspera duraque pondera mentes onustse, 
Sobria muniat, improba puniat, utraque juste. 

These have been translated by Duffield, in 
the measure of the original with the inter- 
mediate dactylic rhymes and the final double 
rhymes, in a literal rendering of the poem, 
line for line and often word for word : 

These are the latter times, these are not better 
times, let us stand waiting; 

Lo, how with awfulness He, first in lawfulness, 
comes arbitrating ! 

Nearer and nearer yet ! Wrong shall in terror 
set, right shine refulgent. 

Sad ones He liberates, righteous remunerates, 
ever indulgent ; 

Harshness He mitigates, burdened souls ani- 
mates, freeing them lightly ; 

Holy ones blesseth He, wicked distresseth He — 
each alike rightly. 

Charles C. Nott renders the same lines : 

Hours of the latest ! times of the basest ! our 
vigil before us ! 

Judgment eternal of Being supernal now hang- 
ing o'er us ! 



De Contemptu Mundi 29 

Evil to terminate, equity vindicate, cometh the 

Kingly ; 
Righteousness seeing, anxious hearts freeing, 

crowning each singly, 
Bearing life's weariness, tasting life's bitterness, 

life as it must be ; 
Th' righteous retaining, sinners arraigning, 

judging all justly. 

These two translations, faithful as their 
creators have striven to make them, seem 
almost devoid, because of their mechanics, 
of beauty. True, they are effective, but how 
much less so than the rendering in the para- 
phrase of De Contemptu Mandi, which 
Neale has given us under the title of "The 
Celestial Country." This paraphrase is of 
the jewels of hymnology and as such we 
present it. Its extreme length has caused 
us embarrassment, but we deem it wise to 
publish "The Celestial Country" in its en- 
tirety, because any selection of stanzas, no 
matter how carefully such selection be done, 
would be more of mutilation than improve- 
ment. The version employed is that of 
Nott, and differs from the version in medi- 
aeval hymns in the arrangement of stanzas 
and punctuation. Three slight changes in 



30 Seven Great Hymns 

text have also been made. The version is, 
however, the most satisfactory one in Eng- 
lish : 

THE CELESTIAL COUNTRY. 

The world is very evil, 

The times are waxing late ; 
Be sober and keep vigil, 

The Judge is at the gate — 
The Judge that comes in mercy, 

The Judge that comes with might, 
To terminate the evil, 

To diadem the right. 
When the just and gentle Monarch 

Shall summon from the tomb, 
Let man, the guilty, tremble, 

For man, the God, shall doom ! 

Arise, arise, good Christian, 

Let right to wrong succeed; 
Let penitential sorrow 

To heavenly gladness lead — 
To the light that hath no evening, 

That knows no moon nor sun, 
The light so new and golden, 

The light that is but One. 

And when the Sole-Begotten 

Shall render up once more 
The kingdom to the Father, 

Whose own it was before, 



De Contemptu Mundi 31 

Then glory yet unheard of 

Shall shed abroad its ray, 
Resolving all enigmas, 

An endless Sabbath day. 

Then, then from his oppressors 

The Hebrew shall go free, 
And celebrate in triumph 

The year of Jubilee ; 
And the sunlit Land that recks not 

Of tempest nor of fight, 
Shall fold within its bosom 

Each happy Israelite — 
The Home of fadeless splendor 

Of flowers that fear no thorn, 
Where they shall dwell as children. 

Who here as exiles mourn. 

Midst power that knows no limit, 

And wisdom free from bound, 
The Beatific Vision 

Shall glad the saints around — 
The peace of all the faithful, 

The calm of all the blest, 
Inviolate, unvaried, 

Divinest, sweetest, best, 
Yes, peace ! for war is needless — 

Yes, calm ! for storm is past — 
And goal from finished labor, 

And anchorage at last. 



22 Seven Great Hymns 

That peace — but who may claim it? 

The guileless in their way, 
Who keep the ranks of battle, 

Who mean the thing they say — 
The peace that is for heaven, 

And shall be for the earth ; 
The palace that re-echoes 

With festal song and mirth ; 
The garden, breathing spices, 

The paradise on high ; 
Grace beautified to glory, 

Unceasing minstrelsy. 

There nothing can be feeble, 

There none can ever mourn, 
There nothing is divided, 

There nothing can be torn. 
'Tis fury, ill, and scandal, 

'Tis peaceless peace below ; 
Peace, endless, strifeless, ageless, 

The halls of Sion know. 

O happy, holy portion, 

Refection for the blest, 
True vision of true beauty, 

Sweet cure of all distrest ! 
Strive, man, toi win that glory ; 

Toil, man, to gain that light ; 
Send hope before to grasp it, 

Till hope be lost in sight ; 
Till Jesus gives the portion 

Those blessed souls to fill — 



De Contemptu Mundi 33 

The insatiate, yet satisfied, 
The full, yet craving still. 



That fullness and that craving 

Alike are free from pain, 
Where thou, midst heavenly citizens, 

A home like theirs shalt gain. 
Here is the warlike trumpet ; 

There, life set free from sin, 
When to the last Great Supper, 

The faithful shall come in ; 
When the heavenly net is laden 

With fishes many and great 
(So glorious in its fullness, 

Yet so inviolate) ; 
And perfect from unperfected, 

And fall'n from those that stand, 
And the sheep-flock from the goat-herd 

Shall part on either hand. 

And these shall pass to torment, 

And those shall triumph then — 
The new peculiar nation, 

Blest number of blest men. 
Jerusalem demands them; 

They paid the price on earth, 
And now shall reap the harvest 

In blissfulness and mirth — 
The glorious, holy people, 

Who evermore relied 
Upon their Chief and Father, 

The King, the Crucified — 



34 Seven Great Hymns 

The sacred ransomed number 

Now bright with endless sheen, 
Who made the Cross their watchword 

Of Jesus Nazarene, 
Who (fed with heavenly nectar 

Where soul-like odors play) 
Draw out the endless leisure 

Of that long, vernal day. 

And, through the sacred lilies 

And flowers on every side, 
The happy dear-bought people 

Go wandering far and wide; 
Their breasts are filled with gladness, 

Their mouths are tun'd to praise, 
What time, now safe forever, 

On former sins they gaze ; 
The fouler was the error, 

The sadder was the fall, 
The ampler are the praises 

Of Him who pardoned all. 

Their one and only anthem, 

The fulness of His love, 
Who gives instead of torment, 

Eternal joys above — 
Instead of torment, glory ; 

Instead of death, that life 
Wherewith your happy Country, 

True Israelites, is rife. 
Brief life is here our portion, 

Brief sorrow, short-liv'd care; 



De Contemptu Mundi 35 

The life that knows no ending — 
The tearless life, is there. 

O happy retribution ! 

Short toil, eternal rest ; 
For mortals and for sinners 

A mansion with the blest ! 
That we should look, poor wand'rers, 

To have our home on high ! 
That worms should seek for dwelling, 

Be3 T ond the starry sky ! 
To all one happy guerdon 

Of one celestial grace; 
For all, for all, who mourn their fall, 

Is one eternal place. 

And martyrdom hath roses 

Upon that heavenly ground ; 
And white and virgin lilies 

For virgin-souls abound. 
There grief is turned to pleasure — 

Such pleasure as below 
No human voice can utter, 

No human heart can know ; 
And after fleshly scandal, 

And after this world's night, 
And after storm and whirlwind, 

Is calm, and joy, and light. 

And now we fight the battle, 

But then shall wear the crown 
Of full and everlasting 

And passionless renown ; 



36 Seven Great Hymns 

And now we watch and struggle, 

And now we live in hope, 
And Sion, in her anguish, 

With Babylon must cope ; 
But He whom now we trust in 

Shall then be seen and known, 
And they that know and see Him 

Shall have Him for their own. 

The miserable pleasures 

Of the body shall decay ; 
The bland and flattering struggles 

Of the flesh shall pass away; 
And none there shall be jealous, 

And none shall there contend ; 
Fraud, clamor, guile — what say I? 

All ill, all ill shall end ! 

And there is David's Fountain, 

And life in fullest glow ; 
And there the light is golden, 

And milk and honey flow — 
The light that hath no evening, 

The health that hath no sore, 
The life that hath no ending, 

But lasteth evermore. 

There Jesus shall embrace us, 
There Jesus be embraced — 

That spirit's food and sunshine 
Whence earthly love is chased. 



De Contemptu Mundi 

Amidst the happy chorus, 

A place, however low, 
Shall shew Him us, and, shewing, 

Shall satiate evermore. 

By hope we struggle onward ; 

While here we must be fed 
By milk, as tender infants, 

But there by living Bread. 
The night was full of terror, 

The morn is bright with gladness ; 
The Cross becomes our harbor, 

And we triumph after sadness. 

And Jesus to His true ones 

Brings trophies fair to see ; 
And Jesus shall be loved, and 

Beheld in Galilee — 
Beheld, when morn shall waken, 

And shadows shall decay, 
And each true-hearted servant 

Shall shine as doth the day ; 
And every ear shall hear it — 

"Behold thy King's array. 
Behold thy GOD in Beauty, 

The Law hath pass'd away I" 

Yes ! God my King and Portion, 

In fullness of Thy grace, 
We then shall see forever, 

And worship face to face. 



38 Seven Great Hymns 

Then Jacob into Israel, 

From earthlier self estranged, 
And Leah into Rachel 

Forever shall be changed; 
Then all the halls of Zion 

For aye shall be complete, 
And in the Land of Beauty 

All things of beauty meet. 

For thee, O dear, dear Country ! 

Mine eyes their vigils keep ; 
For very love, beholding 

Thy happy Name, they weep. 
The mention of Thy glory 

Is unction to the breast, 
And medicine in sickness, 

And love, and life, and rest. 

O one, O only Mansion ! 

O Paradise of Joy! 
Where tears are ever banished, 

And smiles have no alloy, 
Beside thy living waters 

All plants are, great and small, 
The cedar of the forest, 

The hyssop of the wall ; 
With jaspers glow thy bulwarks, 

Thy streets with emeralds blaze, 
The sardius and the topaz 

Unite in thee their rays; 
Thine ageless walls are bounded 

With amethyst unpriced; 



De Contemptu Mundi 39 

Thy Saints build up its fabric, 

And the corner-stone is Christ. 
The Cross is all thy splendor, 

The Crucified thy praise ; 
His laud and benediction 

Thy ransomed people raise : 
"Jesus the Gem of Beauty, 

True God and Man" they sing, 
"The never-failing Garden, 

The ever-golden Ring ; 
The Door, the Pledge, the Husband, 

The Guardian of his Court; 
The Day-star of Salvation, 

The Porter and the Port!" 

Thou hast no shore, fair ocean ! 

Thou hast no time, bright day ! 
Dear fountain of refreshment 

To pilgrims far away ! 
Upon the Rock of Ages 

They raise thy holy tower ; 
Thine is the victor's laurel, 

And thine the golden dower ! 

Thou feel'st in mystic rapture, 

O Bride thou know'st no guile, 
The Prince's sweetest kisses, 

The Prince's loveliest smile; 
Unfading lilies, bracelets 

Of living pearl thine own; 
The Lamb is ever near thee, 

The Bridegroom thine alone. 



40 Seven Great Hymns 

The Crown is He to guerdon, 
The Buckler to protect, 

And He Himself the Mansion, 
And He the Architect. 

The only art thou needest — 

Thanksgiving for thy lot; 
The only joy thou seekest — 

The Life where Death is not. 
And all thine endless leisure, 

In sweetest accents, sings 
The ill that was thy merit, 

The wealth that is Thy King's! 

Jerusalem the Golden, 

With milk and honey blest, 
Beneath Thy contemplation 

Sink heart and voice oppressed. 
I know not, O I know not, 

What social joys are there! 
What radiancy of glory, 

What light beyond compare ! 
And when I fain would sing them, 

My spirit fails and faints ; 
And vainly would it image 

The assembly of the Saints. 

They stand, those halls of Zion, 
Con jubilant with song, 

And bright with many an angel, 
And all the martyr throng; 



De Contemptu Mundi 41 

The Prince is ever in them, 

The daylight is serene ; 
The pastures of the Blessed 

Are decked in glorious sheen. 

There is the Throne of David, 

And there, from care released, 
The song of them that triumph, 

The shout of them that feast; 
And they, who with their Leader, 

Have conquered in the fight, 
Forever and forever 

Are clad in robes of white ! 

O holy, placid harp-notes 

Of that eternal hymn ! 
O sacred, sweet perfection, 

And peace of Seraphim ! 
O thirst, forever ardent, 

Yet evermore content ! 
O true, peculiar vision 

Of God cunctipotent ! 
Ye know the many mansions 

For many a glorious name, 
And divers retributions 

That divers merits claim; 
For 'midst the constellations 

That deck our earthly sky, 
This star than that is brighter — 

And so it is on high. 



42 Seven Great Hymns 

Jerusalem the glorious ! 

The glory of the Elect! 
O dear and future vision 

That eager hearts expect! 
Even now by faith I see thee, 

Even here thy walls discern ; . 
To thee iny thoughts are kindled, 

And strive, and pant, and yearn. 

Jerusalem the only, 

That look'st from heaven below, 
In thee is all my glory, 

In me is all my woe ; 
And though my body may not, 

My spirit seeks thee fain, 
Till flesh and earth return me 

To earth and flesh again. 

O none can tell thy bulwarks, 

How gloriously they rise ! 
O none can tell thy capitals 

Of beautiful device ! 
Thy loveliness oppresses 

All human thought and heart ; 
And none, O peace, O Zion ! 

Can sing thee as thou art! 

New mansion of new people, 
Whom God's own love and light 

Promote, increase, make holy, 
Identify, unite! 



De Contemptu Mundi - 43 

Thou City of the Angels! 

Thou City of the Lord! 
Whose everlasting music 

Is the glorious decachord ! 



And there the band of Prophets 

United praise ascribes, 
And there the twelvefold chorus 

Of Israel's ransomed tribes. 
The lily-beds of virgins, 

The roses' martyr-glow. 
The cohort of the Fathers 

Who kept the Faith below. 

And there the Sole-Begotten 

Is Lord in regal state — 
He, Judah's mystic Lion, 

He, Lamb Immaculate. 
O fields that know no sorrow ; 

O state that fears no strife! 

princely bowers ! O land of flowers ! 

realm and home of Life ! 

Jerusalem, exulting 
On that securest shore, 

1 hope thee, wish thee, sing thee, 
And love thee evermore! 

I ask not for my merit, 

1 seek not to deny, 
My merit is destruction, 

A child of wrath am I; 
But yet with Faith I venture 



44 Seven Great Hymns 

And Hope upon my way; 
For those perennial guerdons 
I labor night and day. 

The best and dearest Father, 

Who made me and who saved, 
Bore with me in defilement, 

And from defilement laved. 
When in His strength I struggle, 

For very joy I leap, 
When in my sin I totter, 

I weep, or try to weep ; 
But grace, sweet grace celestial, 

Shall all its love display, 
And David's Royal Fountain 

Purge every sin away. 

O mine, my Golden Zion ! 

O lovelier far than gold, 
With laurel-girt battalions, 

And safe victorious fold ! 
O sweet and blessed Country, 

Shall I ever see thy face? 

sweet and blessed Country, 
Shall I ever win thy grace? 

1 have the hope within me 
To comfort and to bless ! 

Shall I ever win the prize itself? 
O tell me, tell me, Yes ! 

Exult, O dust and ashes! 
The Lord shall be thy part; 



De Contemptu Mundi 45 

His only, His forever, 

Thou shalt be, and thou art! 

Exult, O dust and ashes! 
The Lord shall be thy part; 

His only, His forever, 

Thou shalt be, and thou art! 

[Note — The following changes from the au- 
thor's text have been made in above version : 
Ninth stanza, fourteenth line, those is substituted 
for them; twenty-second stanza, second line, thy 
is substituted for his; forty-second stanza, ninth 
line, but is substituted for and.] 



III. 

THE STAB AT MATER. 



THE STABAT MATER. 

THE third of the great mediaeval hymns 

came, as did the first, the Dies Irce, 

from the Franciscans. It was Thomas of 

Celano who gave to the world that terrible 

warning, beginning: 

Dies Irse ! Dies Ilia ! 
Solvet sseclum in favilla 
Teste David cum Sybilla. 

And it was also a son of the great one of 
Assisi who wrote that saddest of the hymns 
of the Christian Church, that hymn whose 
opening lines have moved the hearts of mil- 
lions with its despairing grief, so wonder- 
fully expressed in the Latin version : 

Stabat Mater dolorosa, 
Juxta crucem lacrymosa, 

Dum pendebat films. 
Cujus animam gementem, 
Contristatem et dolentem, 

Pertransivit gladius. 

One does not need to possess a knowledge 
of Latin to grasp the piteous beauty of such 



5o Seven Great Hymns 

a stanza. If the words are read aloud, with 
due regard for pause and rhythm, the soul 
of the listener is caught in the mesh of their 
melodious intensity, and though the words 
awaken no definite impression, the dolorous 
cadence stirs the heart to melancholy. But 
this marvel of hymnody is not only a cry of 
a troubled heart; it is a poem of glorifica- 
tion, an ecstatic confession of faith, a tri- 
umphant declaration of the result of the 
Great Sacrifice, for the last stanza rings 
with the exultation of a devout soul : 

Fac me cruce custodiri 
Morte Christi prsemuniri 

Confoveri gratia. 
Quando corpus morietur 
Fac ut animae donetur 

Paradisi gloria. 

The author of the Stabat Mater was Ja- 
cobus de Benedictis, born of the Benedittes, 
in Lodi, Italy. His early manhood was de- 
voted to the law, but his prospects were 
blighted by the death of his beloved wife. 
With her death the light went from the 
world, and all the opportunities that were 
open to the distinguished jurist seemed to 



The Stabat Mater. 51 

lead to profitless results. The lawyer be- 
came the Levite, and, renouncing the world, 
Beneditte put on the garb of St. Francis 
and passed his life in unremitting penance, 
the self-imposed rigorous tortures of which 
caused his insanity and death. But before 
the mind of the brilliant man gave way be- 
neath the weight of uncontrolled sorrow, he 
wrote the heart-cry, Stabat Mater, which 
shows the grief of the bereaved husband in 
his expression of the bitter woe that came 
to the mother of Jesus. 

It is said — with but faint proof, it must 
be confessed — that to the author of Stabat 
Mater must be ascribed the Mater Speciosa, 
that nativity hymn whose glad strains begin 
joyfully: 

Stabat Mater speciosa 
Juxta foenum gaudiosa, 

Dum jacebat parvulus ; 
Cujus animam gaudentem 
Lactabundam ac ferventum 

Pertransivit jubilus. 

(Full of beauty stood the mother 
By the manger, blest o'er other, 
Where her little one she lays ; 



52 Seven Great Hymns 

For her inmost soul's elation, 
In its fervid jubilation 

Thrills with ecstacy of praise.) 

Of the Mater Speciosa the stanza that is 
most clear-cut in its impression upon our 
memory is : 

Virgo virginum praeclara, 
Mihi jam non sis amara; 

Fac me parvum rapere 
Fac ut pulchrum fantem portem, 
Qui nascendo vicit mortem, 

Volens vitam tradere. 

(Virgin, peerless of condition, 
Be not wroth with my petition, 

Let me clasp thy little Son ; 
Let me bear that child so glorious, 
Him, whose birth, o'er death victorious, 

Willed that life for man was won.) 

Despite the beauty of its theme, despite 
its sincere piety and fine poetic expression, 
the Mater Speciosa is inferior in quality to 
the Stabat Mater, though mayhap both 
hymns are among the poems of the world's 
literature. An eminent commentator has 
said of these hymns : "The Mater Speciosa 
and the Mater Dolorosa (the Stabat Mater) 



The Stabat Mater. 53 

are companion hymns, and resemble each 
other like twin sisters. The Mater Dolo- 
rosa was evidently suggested by St. John 
(John xix, 25), Stabat juxta crucem mater 
epis; and this suggested the cradle hymn as 
a counterpart. It is a parallelism of con- 
trast which runs from beginning to end. 
The Mater Speciosa is a Christmas hymn, 
and sings the overflowing joy of Mary at 
the cradle of the new-born Saviour. The 
Mater Dolorosa is a Good Friday hymn and 
sings the piercing agony of Mary at the 
cross of her human Son. They breathe the 
same love to Christ, and the burning desire 
to become identified with Mary by sympa- 
thy in the intensity of her joy as in the 
intensity of her grief. They are the same 
in structure, and excel alike in the singu- 
larly touching music of language and the 
soft cadence that echoes the sentiment. * 
* * The mysterious charm and power of 
the two hymns are due to the subject and 
the intensity of feeling with which the au- 
thor seized it. Mary at the manger and 
Mary at the cross opens a vista to an abyss 
of joy and of grief such as the world never 
saw before." 



54 Seven Great Hymns 

Our interior consideration of the Stabat 
Mater is heightened by studying it in con- 
nection with the other great Crucifixion 
hymns. These are of varying dates and by 
authors whose names have in many cases 
escaped the search of the compilers of 
hymnologies. We find that the first of these 
hymns is of Grecian origin and is to Christ 
on the cross : 

Thou who, on the sixth day and hour, 
Didst nail to the cross the sin 
Which Adam dared in Paradise ; 
Rend also the handwriting of our trans- 
gressions, 
O Christ, our God, and save us ! 

This is indeed inferior to the great Stabat 
Mater, yet it is the expression of a pious 
soul crying out for salvation. Yet, judged 
as a piece of literary composition solely, 
how barren is the stanza without the mother 
love of the virgin, desolate and mourning. 
We cannot even sketch the Crucifixion 
hymns written between the first years of 
the establishing of the Christian Church in 
Greece and those of the triumph of the 
Roman rite over those of the other divisions 



The Stabat Mater. 55 

of the church. We may, however, quote a 
stanza , from that superlatively beautiful 
hymn of St. Bernard : 

SALVE CAPUT CRUENTATUM. 

Hail, thou Head ! so bruised and wounded, 
With the crown of thorns surrounded, 
Smitten with the mocking reed, 
Wounds which may not cease to bleed 

Trickling faint and slow. 
Hail ! from whose most blessed brow 
None can wipe the blood-drop now ; 
All the bloom of life has fled, 
Mortal paleness there instead ; 
Thou, before whose presence dread 

Angels trembling bow. 

This hymn finds as worthy a complement 
in The Pierced Feet of Jesus as does the 
Stabat Mater in the Mater Speciosa. St. 
Bernard's genius shines forth in both. 

SALVE MUNDE SALUTARE. 

All the world's salvation, hail ! 
Jesus, Saviour, hail, oh hail ! 
I would be conformed now 
To Thy Cross ; Thou knowest how ! 
Grant Thy strength to me ! 



S6 Seven Great Hymns 



j 



And, if present, oh, receive me ! 
Ever present I believe Thee, 
Pure and spotless, I adore Thee, 
See me, prostrate, here before Thee, 
Be Thy pardon free. 

It is, however, idle to bring forward 
hymns to compare with the Stabat Mater. 
Those we have quoted are perhaps most 
w r orthy of comparison, but they are so far 
inferior to the standard with which they 
are compared that the juxtaposition causes 
unjust appraisement. By themselves the 
hymns of Bernard rank high as examples 
of devotional exercise and as gems of poet- 
ical composition, and, therefore, we might 
well so consider them. 

We have been at a loss to select a trans- 
lation of the Stabat Mater. The delicacy, 
the beauty of the poem finds its fullest ex- 
pression in the Latin, and well-nigh vain 
have been the efforts of our translators to 
render these qualities into English. Indeed, 
of all the mediaeval hymns none suffer such 
loss in translation as the Stabat Mater. 
The present writer has striven to make a 
worthy translation, and confesses to utter 



The Stabat Mater. 57 

failure. In translations there is such radi- 
cal difference of rendering as to bewilder 
the student; for example, the last stanza, 
the Latin of which is quoted above, has 
been translated : 

By Lindsay — 

So the shadow of the tree, 
Where thy Jesus bled for me, 

Still shall be my fortalice; 
So when flesh and spirit sever 
Shall I live, thy boon, forever 

In the joys of Paradise! 

By Dix— 

With the Cross my faith I'll cherish, 
By Christ's death sustained I'll perish, 

Through His grace again to rise. 
Come then, Death, this body sealing, 
To my ransomed soul revealing 

Glorious days in Paradise. 

By Coles — 

Let me by the Cross be warded, 
By the death of Christ be guarded, 

Nourished by divine supplies. 
When the body death hath riven, 
Grant that to the soul be given 

Glories bright of Paradise. 



58 Seven Great Hymns 

By Nott— 

Let me by the Cross directed, 
By the death of Christ protected, 

See below His glory far. 
Then this body, mouldering, riven — 
Then be to my spirit given 

Paradisi Gloria! 

We give from the versions of the hymn 
selected, though with doubt, that by Gen. 
John Adams Dix, of New Hampshire, and 
we transcribe it below in its entirety : 

Near the Cross the Saviour bearing 
Stood the mother lone, despairing, 

Bitter tears down falling fast. 
Wearied was her breast with grieving 
Worn her breast with sorrow heaving, 

Through her soul the sword had passed. 

Ah ! how sad and broken-hearted 
Was that blessed mother, parted 

From the God-begotten One! 
How her loving heart did languish 
When she saw the mortal anguish 

Which o'erwhelmed her peerless Son. 

Who could witness without weeping 
Such a flood of sorrow sweeping 
O'er the stricken mother's breast? 



The Stabat Mater. 59 

Who contemplate without being 
Moved to kindred grief by seeing 
Son and mother thus oppressed? 

For our sins she saw Him bending, 
And the cruel lash descending 

On His body, stripped and bare ; 
Saw her own dear Jesus dying, 
Heard His spirit's last out-crying, 

Sharp with anguish and despair. 

Gentle Mother, love's pure fountain ! 
Cast, oh ! cast on me the mountain 

Of thy grief that I may weep ; 
Let my heart with ardor burning, 
Christ's unbounded love returning. 

His rich favor win and keep. 

Holy Mother, be thy study 

Christ's dear image scarred and bloody 

To enshrine within my heart ! 
Martyred Son ! whose grace has set me 
Free from endless death, oh ! let me 

Of Thy sufferings bear a part. 

Mother, let our tears commingle. 
Be the crucifix my single 

Sign of sorrow while I live ; 
Let me by the Cross stand near thee, 
There to see thee, there to hear thee, 

For each sigh a sigh to give. 



60 Seven Great Hymns 

Purest of the Virgins ! turn not 
Thy displeasure on me — spurn not 

My desire to weep with thee. 
Let me live Christ's passion sharing, 
All His wounds and sorrows bearing 

In my tearful memory. 

Be, ye wounds, my tribulation ! 
Be, thou Cross, my inspiration ! 

Mark, O blood, my Heaven-ward way. 
Thus to fervor rapt, O tender 
Virgin, be thou my defender 

In the dreadful Judgment Day. 

With the Cross my faith I'll cherish ; 
By Christ's death sustained I'll perish, 

Through His grace again to rise. 
Come then, Death, this body sealing, 
To my ransomed soul revealing 

Glorious days in Paradise. 



IV. 
THE VEXILLA REGIS. 



THE VEXILLA REGIS. 

THE Vexilla Regis, the fourth hymn of 
our canon of great hymns, bridges a 
space of fourteen centuries, written, as it 
was, in the closing decade of the sixth hun- 
dred of those years that separate our date 
from that of the birth of Christ. This is the 
oldest of the great hymns of the Christian 
Church, and it has been one of the most 
powerfully influential. It is the hymn of 
hope and courage; the hymn that has ani- 
mated the bearers of the cross to well-nigh 
superhuman efforts in the cause of their 
faith. The Vexilla Regis, in its present 
form, is essentially a missionary hymn, and, 
throughout the length and breadth of the 
Americas, its strains have been the first to 
wake the silence of the unconquered wilder- 
ness. When Ponce de Leon landed on the 
shores of Florida, it was the Vexilla that 
was sung when the explorers had assembled 
for the inland march; when La Salle came 
down the Mississippi and took possession of 
the vast empire of Louisiana for the King 



66 Seven Great Hymns 

of France, his first office, after setting up 
the symbol of proprietorship, was to join in 
the singing of the Vexilla. And so it was 
wherever Spain and France w r ent into the 
New World, for these nations bore in one 
hand a cross and in the other a sword. The 
men of the cross chanted the Vexilla in the 
North, South and West, and the natives' 
first knowledge of the rites of the Catholic 
Church came through this famous hymn. 

It is a long bridge — one built by pious 
hands advancing the cross — from the days 
of exploration and discovery in America to 
those when the sons of Clovis, the great 
Frankish monarch, wrangled for the fertile 
plains from which they had dispossessed 
the Roman conquerors of the Gauls. It 
was, however, in that country and time that 
Venantius Fortunatus, lately come from 
Northern Italy, lived. He was, perhaps, 
twenty years old when he crossed the Apen- 
nines and brought his good looks and lively 
wit to the court of Sigebert of Austrasia. 
Of the poets and singers of his day Fortu- 
natus well deserved his name, for he was 
the favorite of lords and ladies, and wel- 
comed everywhere for his sunny disposi- 



The Vexilla Regis. 67 

tion, beautiful voice and clever turn of 
versemaking. In those days of light-resting 
bonds of faithfulness and passionate pur- 
suit of pleasure, we find Fortunatus an ex- 
ception to his friends, who for the greater 
part were of easy virtue and gay lives. The 
poet was no anchorite, however, and in pur- 
ple and fine linen was he clothed, and every 
day he fared sumptuously. Indeed, we find 
that his indulgence in the fleshpots of 
France laid upon him the heavy cross of 
indigestion, and incidentally stirred his muse 
to lamentations. One intimacy, and one 
alone, did Fortunatus have, and this was 
with Queen Rhadegunda, wife of King Clo- 
taire. This intimate friendship was to be 
the controlling influence of the life of For- 
tunatus, and, strange to say, in the gossip- 
ing age of libertinism in which lived Rhade- 
gunda and the poet, not a breath of scandal 
marred the friendship of saintly queen or 
virtuous author. On the contrary, it was 
through the effect of this friendship that 
Fortunatus forsook the life of the world, 
was consecrated a priest, and passed into 
history as the author of several famous 
hymns. 



68 Seven Great Hymns 

Four are the great hymns of Fortunatus, 
and they have gained in the estimation of 
the faithful as centuries have proved their 
quality. The Vexilla Regis is the most fa- 
mous, but praiseworthy, too, are the three 
not so well known to the Protestant com- 
munions. Of these Crux Bene dicta Nitet, 
Dominus qua Came Perpendit is of great 
beauty. Its opening verses are : 

The blessed Cross shines now to us where once 

the Saviour bled; 
Love made Him victim there for us, and there 

His blood was shed. 

And with His wounds our wounds He heal'd, 

and wash'd our sins away, 
And rescued from the raging wolf the lost and 

helpless prey. 

This poem, as well as two others of the 
quartet, is devoted to the honoring of the 
Cross, and the Pange Lingua Gloriosi Pro- 
elium Certaminis, in lofty strains, continues 
the adoration. Its first verse is : 

Spread, my tongue, the wondrous story of the 

glorious battle far, 
What the trophies and the triumphs of the Cross 

of Jesus are; 



The Vexilla Regis. 69 

How the victim, immolated, vanquished in that 
mighty war ! 



In order that the reader may refer to all 
these hymns of Fortunatus, we quote the 
first lines also of Salve Festa Dies Toto 
Venerabilis Aevo, the Easter hymn that has 
won a world-wide fame : 

Hail, festal day! ever exalted high, 

On which God conquered hell, and rules the 

starry sky; \ 

Hail, festal day! ever exalted high. 

We may now consider the greatest of the 
hymns of Fortunatus, the hymn Vexilla 
Regis. The hymn is of great literary as 
well as devotional merit. It has thus a dual 
claim, in addition to its historic value, upon 
our consideration. It may have been pro- 
duced after Fortunatus had been honored 
by elevation to the Bishopric of Poitiers. 
At all events, it is ascribable to the later 
years of his productivity and is the fairest 
flower of his genius. Although the poem 
is rightly appraised as one of the greatest, 
if not the very greatest, of missionary 
hymns, it was not designed for such use; 



jo Seven Great Hymns 

it was a processional composed in honor of 
certain relics of St. Gregory of Tours and 
St. Radegunde, which were bestowed upon 
a church within the diocese of Fortunatus. 
The character of the hymn made it peculi- 
arly suitable for Lenten use, and we find, 
therefore, that two verses have been added 
to the original version. Following the trans- 
lation of Nott, these may be given thus : 

With fragrance dropping from each bough, 
Sweeter than sweetest nectar thou; 
Decked with the fruit of peace and praise, 
And glorious with Triumphal lays. 

Hail, Altar! Hail, O Victim! Thee 
Decks now Thy Passion's Victory ; 
Where Life for sinners death endured, 
And life by death for man procured. 

The Latin version is of beauty, its rhythm 
appealing, its language impressive. The 
first two verses are : 

Vexilla regis prodeunt, 
Fulget crucis mysterium, 
Quo carne carnis conditor 
Suspensus est patibulo. 



The Vexilla Regis. 71 

Te summa Deus Trinitas 
Collaudet omnis spiritus 
Quas per crucis mysterium 
Salvas, rege per saecula. 

The Vexilla Regis does not suffer so 
much by translation as some of its compan- 
ions in the canon of great hymns. Those 
who have set it over into English have pre- 
served the swing of its movement and the 
intensity of its sentiment. There seems, 
however, a wide diversity in conception of 
the meaning of words. This is not singu- 
lar to the Vexilla Regis. We have noted it 
in the Stabat Mater, De Contemptu Mundi 
and Dies Irce. The length of these poems 
prevented us from giving parallel transla- 
tions in their entirety. In the present in- 
stance we are able to give the leading Eng- 
lish versions of the hymn. The first of these 
is by Dr. Neale, whose work w r e have en- 
sampled in the Celestial Country. The sec- 
ond translation is by Catherine Winkworth 
and is not inferior to that of Dr. Neale. 
Miss Winkworth has rendered literature 
great service by her work in mediaeval 
hymnology, and her ability finds exemplifi- 



72 Seven Great Hymns 

cation in that beautiful version of that 
hymn, which the Jesuit missionaries have 
made their own : 

THE VEXILLA REGIS. 

(Dr. Neale.) 

The Royal Banners forward go; 
The Cross shines forth in mystic glow ; 
Where He in flesh, our flesh who made, 
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid. 

Where deep for us the spear was dy'd, 
Life's torrent rushing from His side, 
To wash us in that precious flood 
Where mingled water flowed, and blood. 

Fulfiird is all that David told 

In true prophetic songs of old; 

Amidst the nations God, saith he, 

Hath reign'd and triumph'd from the Tree. 

O Tree of Beauty! Tree of Light; 
O Tree with royal purple dight ! 
Elect on whose triumphal breast 
Those holy limbs should find their rest ! 

On whose dear arms, so widely flung, 
The weight of this world's ransom hung ; 
The price of human kind to pay, 
And spoil the Spoiler of his prey. 



The Vexilla Regis. 73 

O Cross, our one reliance, hail ! 
This holy Passion-tide, avail 
To give fresh merit to the saint, 
And pardon to the penitent. 

To Thee, Eternal Three in One, 
Let homage meet by all be done; 
Whom by the Cross Thou dost restore, 
Preserve and govern evermore. 

This is the rendering given by Miss Wink- 
worth : 

THE VEXILLA REGIS. 

(Miss Wink worth.) 

The Banner of the King goes forth — 
The Cross, the radiant mystery, 

Where, in a frame of human birth, 
Man's Maker suffers on the Tree. 

Fix'd with the fatal nails to death, 

With outstretch'd hands and pierced feet ; 

Here the pure Victim yields His breath, 
That our redemption be complete. 

And ere had closed that mournful day 
They wounded with the spear His side ; 

That He might wash our sins away, 
His blood pour'd forth its crimson tide! 



74 Seven Great Hymns 

The truth that David learn'd to sing, 
Its deep fulfillment here attains ; 
"Tell all the earth the Lord is King !" 

Lo ! from the Cross, a King He reigns ! 

O most elect and pleasant Tree, 
Chosen such sacred limbs to bear; 

A royal purple clotheth thee, 

The purple of His blood is there! 

Blest ! on whose arms, in woe sublime, 
The Ransom of the ages lay, 

Outweighing all the sins of Time, 
Despoiling Satan of his prey. 

A fragrance from thy bark distills, 
Surpassing heavenly nectar far ; 

The noblest fruit thy branches fills, 
Weapon of the victorious war. 

Hail, altar ! Victim, hail once more ! 

That glorious Passion be adored ! 
Since death the Life Himself thus bore, 

And by that death our life restored! 



V. 
VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS. 

VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS. 



VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS. 

VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS. 

TWO great poems contest for the fifth 
place in or choice of seven great medi- 
aeval hymns. It is difficult to decide be- 
tween these claimants, for both are hallowed 
by the reverence of centuries, and have 
for almost a thousand years moved the 
hearts of Christians. Viewed from the 
standpoint of an ecclesiastic, the Veni Cre- 
ator Spirit us may well be regarded as co- 
equal with the Veni Sancte Spiritus. Both 
breathe the purest spirit of devotion, both 
voice the doctrines of the church, and both 
move the heart to religious practices. We 
are forced, then, to judge between these 
grand examples of the highest art of the 
hymnist by literary standards. Even when 
we attempt to thus discriminate, we find our 
difficulties in small wise lessened, for at the 
outset we might well ask ourselves : shall 
we judge these poems in their original Latin 
or as they are translated or paraphrased? 
If the former, w r e are judging for the few; 



80 Seven Great Hymns 

if the latter, for the many. Yet that is ex- 
actly what we are forced to do in the pres- 
ent instance, for the poems were written in 
Latin, and no translation can stand on a 
parity with the original version. Viewed 
by this literary standard, we give to the 
Veni Sancte Spiritus the fifth place in our 
canon, though in doing so, we couple with it 
the Veni Creator Spiritus. 

The hymn is said to have been written in 
the last decade of the tenth century, and 
the authorship is ascribed to King Robert 
II of France, and while we can be in no- 
wise certain that the ascription is correct, 
we may be reasonably sure that it is. In 
this opinion the leading writers upon Latin 
hymnology concur, and their support is 
strengthened by the fact that King Robert 
was, from the testimony of his contempo- 
raries, capable of composing such a hymn 
as the Veni Sancte Spiritus, "for," says the 
chronicle of St. Bertin, "he was devout, 
circumspect, learned, philosophical, and 
moreover, an excellent musician." Bertin 
further states that he composed other hymns 
of great beauty. The ability being conceded, 
we next find that the hymn has never been 



Veni Sancte Spiritus. 8 i 

seriously attributed to any other author, and 
the testimony of countless churchmen in- 
dorses King Robert's authorship, and we 
may add that, if there had been the slight- 
est ground for taking from King Robert 
the glory of having given to the world this 
great hymn, the jealousies of contending 
clerical factions would have given it promi- 
nence. 

The Veni Sancte in its original is pecu- 
liarly impressive. The poet, though using a 
somewhat contracted style, has infused into 
his well-chosen words, whose cadence is re- 
markably effective, a spirit that at once 
classes the Veni Sancte Spiritus with the 
Dies Irce and the Stabat Mater. The open- 
ing stanzas are : 

Veni, Sancte Spiritus, 
Et emitte ccelitus, 
Lucis tuae radium. 

Veni, pater pauperum, 
Veni, dator munerum, 
Veni, lumen cordium. 

The second of these verses may well be 
taken as an example of differing concep- 



82 Seven Great Hymns 

tions of meaning shown by translators. The 
whole emphasis, to the present writer, is 
thrown on the Veni, Veni, Veni, and the 
stanza is best translated — 

Come, Father of the poor to earth, 
Come with Thy gifts of precious worth, 
Come, Light of all of mortal birth — 

but it has been rendered by an eminent 
translator — 

Come, thou Father of the poor, 
Giver from a boundless store, 
Light of Hearts, O shine! 

In this version, which it seems to us is 
little more than a paraphrase faintly echo- 
ing the real emphasis of the Latin, the 
translation has lost the true spirit of the 
hymn, as has been more fully pointed out 
by the learned commentator, Nott. The 
closing verses of the original version are 
worthy of quotation, because of their per- 
fect Latinity. They furnish a striking ex- 
ample of the power of simple words, and as 
simple construction, to express in brief 



Veni Sancte Spiritus. 83 

phrase a wide sweep of the most exalted 
spirituality. 

Da tuis fidelibus, 
In te confidentibus, 
Sacrum septenarium. 

Da virtutis meritum, 
Da salutis exitum, 
Da perenne guadium. 

Of the translations of the Veni Sancte 
Spiritus few, in fact but two, seem worthy 
of our serious consideration. The first of 
these is the work of the gifted author Cath- 
erine Winkworth, whose version of the 
Vexilla Regis has been quoted. This trans- 
lation is faithful to the spirit of the origi- 
nal, and its English is of such a character 
as to render it of great use in choral serv- 
ices. It is : 

Come, Holy Ghost ! Thou fire divine ! 
From highest heaven on us down shine ! 
Comforter, be Thy comfort mine ! 

Come, Father of the poor, to earth; 
Come, with Thy gifts of precious worth ; 
Come, Light of all of mortal birth ! 



84 Seven Great Hymns 

Thou rich in comfort! Ever blest 

The heart where Thou art constant guest, 

Who giv'st the heavy-laden rest. 

Come, Thou in Whom our toil is sweet, 
Our shadow in the noonday heat, 
Before whom mourning flieth fleet. 

Bright Son of Grace! Thy sunshine dart 
On all who cry to Thee apart, 
And fill with gladness every heart. 

What'er without Thy aid is wrought, 
Or skillful deed, or wisest thought, 
God counts it vain and merely naught. 

O cleanse us that we sin no more, 
O'er parched souls Thy waters pour ; 
Heal the sad heart that acheth sore. 

Thy will be ours in all our ways; 
O melt the frozen with Thy rays ; 
Call home the lost in error's maze. 

And grant us, Lord, who cry to Thee, 
And hold the faith in unity, 
Thy precious gifts of charity. 

That we may live in holiness, 
And find in death our happiness, 
And dwell with Thee in lasting bliss ! 



Veni Sancte Spiritus. 85 

This beautiful translation will hold its 
place as the favorite rendering of the Veni 
Sancte Spiritus, but in quoting it we must 
not neglect to mention the translation made 
by Dr. Trench. This begins : 

Holy Spirit, come, we pray, 
Come from heaven and shed the ray 
Of Thy light divine. 

And its concluding stanzas are : 

What is rigid, gently bend, 
On what is cold, Thy fervor send; 
What has strayed restore. 

To Thine own in every place 
Give the sacred sereneful grace 
Give Thy faithful this. 

Give to virtue its reward, 
Safe and peaceful end afford, 
Give eternal bliss. 

It is fitting in writing of the Veni Sancte 
Spiritus to dwell for a space upon that 
great companion hymn, the Veni Creator 
Spiritus, and also quote a stanza from the 
O Agnus Spiritus Paracleti, the third mem- 
ber of the triad. This last hymn is the 



86 Seven Great Hymns 

latest of the three, and is from the heart 
of the devout Abbess Hildegarde. Its open- 
ing stanza has been translated : 

O sweetest taste within the breast ! O grace upon 

us poured, 
That saintly hearts may give again their perfume 

to the Lord; 
O purest Fountain we can see, clear mirrored in 

Thy streams, 
That God brings home the wanderers, that God 

the lost redeems. 

But we must now confine ourselves to the 
Veni Creator Spiritus, a hymn around 
whose origin float the mists of uncertainty. 
Some ascribe the creation of this great 
hymn, which throughout a thousand years 
and more has been an inspiration to men, 
to Charlemagne, and those holding this view 
furnish circumstantial evidence in proof of 
their contentions ; others ascribe it to Greg- 
ory the Great, and no less satisfying is the 
proof they bring forward. Tradition favors 
the ascription to Charlemagne, yet modern 
authority is veering to the Gregorian attri- 
bution. 



Veni Creator Spiritus. 87 

Veni, Creator Spiritus, 
Mentes tuorum visita, 
Imple superna gratia, 
Quae tu creasti pectora. 

Qui diceris Paraclitus 
Altissimi donum Dei, 
Fons vivus, ignis, charitas, 
Et Spiritalis unctio. 

Tu septiformis munere, 
Digitus Paternae dexterae, 
Tu rite promissum Patris, 
Sermone ditans guttura. 

Accende lumen sensibus 
Infunde amorem cordibus, 
Infirma nostri corporis 
Virtute firmans perpeti. 

Hostem repellas longius, 
Pacemque dones protinus, 
Ductore sic te praevio 
Vitemus omne noxium. 

Da gaudiorum praemea 
Da gratiarum munera, 
Dissolve litis vincula, 
Astringe pacis foedera. 

Per Te sciamus da Patrem, 
Noscamus atque Filium ; 
Teque utrisque Spiritum 
Credamus omni tempore. 



88 Seven Great Hymns 

Sit laus Patri cum Filio 
Sancto simul Paracleto 
Nobisque mittat Filius 
Charisma Sancti Spiritus. 

Deo Patri sit gloria 
Et Filio qui a mortuis 
Surrexit, ac Paracleto, 
In sseculorum ssecula. 



We have given this hymn in its original 
because it perhaps better than any other 
hymn conveys from its Latinity alone the 
impression that gives receptivity of spirit. 
Read aloud, with due regard for pause and 
stress, the Veni Creator Spiritus will create, 
even in one utterly unable to translate the 
words, a spirit of reverence and a desire 
for spiritual elevation. The effect is height- 
ened when one hears the poem well read, 
and thrice heightened when its words come 
to him in sonorous chant. The Veni Crea- 
tor Spiritus has been the hymn of great 
occasions. It is well called the coronation 
hymn, for it has been used for a millennium 
when the rulers of church and state were 
elevated to office. It has been an inspira- 
tion to countless millions, and today its 



Veni Creator Spiritus. 89 

glory is as great as when it was given as a 
light to the Dark Ages. The hymn has no 
great translation — no translation, in fact, 
that does not seriously detract from the 
beauty of the original. The best known of 
these settings over into English is the Dry- 
den paraphrase. It begins : 

Creator Spirit, by whose aid 

The world's foundations first were laid, 

Come visit every pious mind, 

Come pour Thy joys on human kind; 

From sin and sorrow set us free, 

And make Thy temples worthy Thee. 

A glance at the Latin version and then a 
glance at this weak, though pious, stanza 
makes us wish that all the world knew the 
tongue of ancient Italy. As for ourselves 
we prefer, because of its beauty, though we 
regret the lack of fidelity to the original 
text and its brutal eliminations, the fol- 
lowing version : 

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, 
And lighten with celestial fire. 

Thou the anointing Spirit art, 
Who dost Thy sevenfold gift impart. 



90 Seven Great Hymns 

Thy blessed unction from above 
Is comfort, life and fire of love. 

Enable with perpetual light 

The dullness of our blinded sight. 

Annoint and cheer our soiled face 
With the abundance of Thy grace. 

Keep far out foes, give peace at home ; 
Where Thou art guide, no ill can come. 

Teach us to know the Father, Son, 
And Thee, of both, to be but One. 

That, through the ages all along, 
This may be our endless song. 

Praise to Thy eternal merit, 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 



VI. 

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 



TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 

JT ARLIEST in the use of the Church, af- 
ter the hymns from the Scriptures, 
stands the Te Deum Laudamiis. Majestic 
in its inception, imperial in its progress, it 
has swept through the ages with such force 
and power that we question if of all the 
hymns of the Church there is one to rival 
it in use and effect. Throughout the world, 
wherever Christians gather to worship, 
sound the heart-compelling strains of the 
Te Deum; and wherever assemble those 
who worship the name of Christ as the 
name of God, there, on each day of prayer, 
rise the words, if the congregation is of the 
Roman comunion : 

Te Deum laudamus : Te Dominurn confitemur. 

Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. 

Tibi omnes angeli, tibi cceli et universal potestates. 

Tibi cherubim et seraphim, incessabili voce pro- 
clamant : 

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sa- 
baoth. 



96 Seven Great Hymns 

In thousands of places of worship where- 
in the sonorous Latin tongue no longer has 
place, there, too, the Te Deum Laudamus 
rises to heaven, though in the words of that 
English speech in which — no matter how 
well the Latin has been set over — is retained 
but a moiety of the beauty of the original 
composition. In the present instance, how- 
ever, the translation is in quality beyond 
the standard of those other translations 
which have been considered in our study of 
the great hymns of the world. Those who 
undertook the work of making the English 
version of the Te Deum commonly used 
were gifted beyond their companions in 
hymnology, for they have in a remarkable 
degree preserved not only the letter but the 
spirit of the original Latin version — a ver- 
sion which was based upon a Greek version 
of unknown antiquity. The present transla- 
tion, which we have come to know as we 
know our Gloria in Excelsis and our Pater 
Noster, in their English form, takes its 
origin in the days when the prayerbook of 
the Church of England was in process of 
formation and the ecclesiastics of that 
church were gathering from the treasury 



Te Deum Laudamus. 97 

of the Roman communion all the jewels 
that could be appropriated to the use of the 
nationalized branch of the Catholic Church 
in England. This version, hallowed by the 
use of almost five centuries, runs : 

We praise thee, O God : we acknowledge thee to 

be the Lord. 
All the earth doth worship thee; the Father ever- 
lasting. 
To thee all Angels cry aloud : the Heavens, and 

all the Powers therein ; 
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim : continually do 

cry. 
Holy, Holy, Holy : Lord God of Sabaoth ; 
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty: of 

thy glory. 
The glorious company of the Apostles : praise 

thee. 
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets : praise 

thee. 
The noble army of martyrs : praise thee. 
The holy Church throughout all the world : doth 

acknowledge thee; 
The Father: of an infinite Majesty; 
Thine adorable, true : and only Son ; 
Also the Holy Ghost: the Comforter. 
Thou art the King of Glory : O Christ. 



98 Seven Great Hymns 

Thou art the everlasting Son : of the Father. 
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man : 

thou didst humble thyself to be born of a 

Virgin. 

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of 

death : Thou didst open the Kingdom of 

Heaven to all believers. 
Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the 

glory of the Father. 
We believe that thou shalt come : to be our Judge. 
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants: whom 

thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. 
Make them to be numbered with thy saints; in 

glory everlasting. 
O Lord, save thy people : and bless thine heritage. 
Govern them : and lift them up forever. 
Day by day : we magnify thee ; 
And we worship thy name : ever, world without 

end. 
Vouchsafe, O Lord : to keep us this day without 

sin. 
O Lord, have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us. 
O Lord, have mercy upon us : as our trust is 

in thee. 
O Lord, in thee have I trusted : let me never be 

confounded. 

As has been pointed out by a learned 
hymnologist, the English translation falls 



Te Deum Laudamus. 99 

short of expressing the full meaning of the 
Latin in three important instances. These 
are, indeed, so plain that we may easily 
point them out, and by so doing add to the 
value of the Te Deum as a vehicle of praise 
and prayer as well as a declaration of faith ; 
for threefold are the attributes of the 
hymns. An accepted text has the line, 

Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus, 

which is rendered in English as : 

The noble army of martyrs ; praise Thee. 

This scarcely conveys the meaning of its 
original, which has a dual reference, first 
to "the dazzling festal robes of the Roman 
noble," and second, to "the souls under the 
altar, to whom were given w T hite robes ; to 
the white-robed multitude who came out of 
great tribulation and had washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." The words, Tu as liberandum 
suscepturus hominem, non horruisti vir- 
ginis uterem, have been translated : "When 
thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou 
didst humble thyself to be born of a vir- 



ioo Seven Great Hymns 

gin." We must read the translation as we 
may read the Latin, namely, that our Lord 
not only came to deliver man, but that it 
was by becoming man that He delivered 
him. The third suggestion that we would 
make refers to the line : Tu, devicto mortis 
acuelo, aperuisti credentibus regna ccelo- 
rum, or in English, "When thou hadst over- 
come the sharpness of death Thou didst 
open the Kingdom of Heaven to all be- 
lievers." This translation falls just short 
of conveying the full meaning of the Latin, 
which not only sets forth the conquering by 
Christ of death, but the further fact that 
He plucked the sting from death, and that 
henceforth it should have no terror for be- 
lievers. 

We may not indulge further in textual 
criticism, great as is the temptation wher- 
ever the question of the setting over of 
hymns from the Latin is concerned. But 
we connot resist the temptation to join our 
voice to that of a devout hymnist, who says, 
concerning the last line of the Te Deum: 
"And as the echoes of the solemn chant die 
away in the village church or cathedral 
choir, the wish will sometimes arise that 



Te Deum Laudamus. ioi 

the last sound left on the ear could be, 
not the word 'confounded/ but as in the 
Latin, the triumphant 'forever.' " 

The Te Deum is one of a triad of hymns 
which have come down from the first years 
of the church. This triad, composed of the 
Tersanctus, the Gloria in Excelsis and the 
Te Deum, are known of all, and it cannot 
be said that interest rests in the greater 
hymn to a larger degree than it does in its 
fellows, and yet it has been universally 
recognized that the Te Deum stands apart 
in its strength and beauty, that it is a hymn 
of hymns, while its fellows are simply 
hymns among hymns. The author of the 
Te Deum is unknown, and it may be said 
also that the year, and even the century, of 
its composition is without certainty. We 
know that the hymn was originally written 
in Greek, and we are told by tradition 
(which has many disputants) that if we 
would have knowledge of its first use we 
must go back 1,500 years in history — to the 
night of Easter, 387, and to the city of 
Milan and its great cathedral. On that 
night a distinguished man whom Ambrose 
had recently converted from heathenism, 



102 Seven Great Hymns 

was baptized by St. Ambrose, the bishop of 
the diocese. This was no less a person than 
Augustine, afterward Bishop of Hippo, the 
saint whose City of God and Confessions 
are still read by thousands. On this night, 
according to tradition, as these two Christ- 
ian fathers — St. Ambrose, the officiating 
prelate, and Augustine, the recent convert — 
were standing by the altar the spirit of in- 
spiration descended upon them, and they 
sang, as it never had been sung before, the 
Te Deum to the great congregation — sang 
it in alternate strophes. Whereupon the 
pious Monica, the mother of Augustine, 
cried out in rapture : "O son, I had rather 
have thee Augustine the Christian than Au- 
gustine the Emperor !" This is the tradi- 
tion, but, as has been pointed out by a 
learned commentator, even if the tradition 
is substantially true, the rendering at that 
time was not a creation, but a welding, for 
it is more than probable that the various 
parts which now form, and which at the 
time of which we write formed, the Te 
Deum, existed in separate portions for many 
years prior to the baptism of St. Augustine. 
It is not until the seventh century that we 



Te Deum Laudamus. 103 

can point with any degree of certainty to 
the public use of the Te Deum, but this we 
know — that from the day of its first certain 
singing it sprang into immediate popularity, 
and that the hold then gained in the Christ- 
ian Church has grown stronger rather than 
diminished with the pasing of the centuries. 
We cannot point to the one Latin version 
of the hymn and say, this is the original 
text. In fact, the text differs notably in 
the various groups into which the early 
copies of the poem have been segregated. 
For example, in accepted versions of the 
hymn there are four different conclusions 
and there is no one w T ho can say this or that 
conclusion was first written. In whatever 
form presented, however, the hymn com- 
mands our admiration. It is well, how r ever, 
to mention that were we to search for the 
early version of this hymn, we would not 
find it under the name of Te Deum, a name 
which has been given to it from its opening 
words. The title most frequently given in 
early hymnals was: Hymnus in Die Domi- 
nica ad Matutin, or Ad Matutin in Die Do- 
minica. We find it entitled Hymnus in Die 
Dominica, Hymnus in Matutinis and some- 



104 Seven Great Hymns 

times as simply Hymnus. It has also been 
called Hymnus Optimus, and Oratio Pura 
Cum Laudatione and Hymnus Augustini. 
But we need not go further in search for 
names ; those we have quoted are sufficient, 
and none of these will be used by us, for 
throughout our life the great hymn has 
been to us, as we pray it may be through 
eternity — 

Te Deum laudamus; Te Dominum confitemur! 



VII. 

CANTEMUS CUNCTI. 



CANTEMUS CUNCTI. 

HPHE season of Lent now draws to a close 
— yet a little while and there comes 
the day that saw upon Golgotha the supreme 
sacrifice by which was given to a sinful 
world a hope by which untold millions have 
been lifted up. The memory of well-nigh 
twenty centuries centers, as the Friday of 
the Passion draws nigh, upon that field of 
the skull where, high hung upon the cross, 
was that figure whose life and death gave 
salvation to the nations, and from whose 
lips burst forth that cry, "Eli, Eli, lama 
sabachthani ?" which will on Friday find 
echo in thousands of temples, where serve 
the priests of the faithful. On that great 
day of suffering will be sung many hymns 
of rare beauty, and from them we hesitate 
to name the one most worthy of highest 
rank, but none of these religious poems sur- 
passes in devotional inspiration that beauti- 
ful hymn by Saint Bernard, which in the 
translation made by Sir H. W. Baker, in 
1861, is: 



no Seven Great Hymns 

O sacred Head surrounded, 
By crown of piercing thorn! 

bleeding Head, so wounded, 
Reviled and put to scorn ! 

Death's pallid hue comes o'er Thee, 
The glow of life decays, 

Yet angel-hosts adore Thee, 
And tremble as they gaze. 

1 see Thy strength and vigor 
All fading in the strife, 

And death with cruel rigor 

Bereaving Thee ofTife. 
O agony and dying! 

O love to sinners free ! 
Jesu, all grace supplying, 

Oh, turn Thy face on me. 

In this, Thy bitter Passion, 

Good Shepherd, think of me 
With Thy most sweet compassion, 

Unworthy though I be. 
Beneath Thy cross abiding 

Forever would I rest, 
In Thy dear love confiding, 

And with Thy presence blest. 

Be near me when I am dying; 

Oh, show Thy cross to me, 
And to my succor flying, 

Come, Lord, and set me free. 



Cantemus Cuncti. Ill 

These eyes, new faith receiving, 

From Jesus shall not move, 
For he, who dies believing, 

Dies safely through Thy love. 

The dark hours of the Passion will pass 
with the setting of Friday's sun, and then 
the hearts of the faithful will be with Jo- 
seph of Arimathea, as he takes from the 
fatal tree that poor, worn body, over which 
Pilate had placed the inscription, written in 
letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew : 
"This is the King of the Jews." The hour 
then comes in which all that was mortal of 
Jesus is wrapped in linen and laid in a 
sepulcher which was hewn in stone, where- 
in never man before was laid. And then 
there comes the Sabbath, during which day 
the Roman soldiers watch the sealed door 
of the place where Jesus lies. With the 
passing of that seventh day that brought 
to an end a septenate of suffering, we come 
to the glorious dawn which followed the 
great earthquake in which the angel of the 
Lord descended from heaven and came and 
rolled back the stone from the door of the 
tomb of Christ. With the coming of Easter 
Day, Lent is done, and instead of sounds of 



ii2 Seven Great Hymns 

mourning, the Christian world sends up 
praise and thanksgiving from hearts which 
cry: 

He is risen ! He is risen ! 

Tell it out with joyful voice: 
He has burst His three days' prison : 

Let the whole wide world rejoice: 
Death is conquered, man is free, 

Christ has won the victory. 

But of all the hymns of gladness and re- 
joicing, none compare with these formed 
after the model of the great original of all 
alleluiatic sequences, the Cantemus Cuncti, 
of the monk Godeschalcus (Gottschalk), 
who died in A. D. 860 a martyr to ill-in- 
spired conviction. This sequence has been 
the parent of hundreds of hymns of praise, 
and, regrettably, furnished a medium, be- 
cause of its adaptability to the purpose of 
the parodist, to scores of scurrilous attacks 
upon the Roman communion. But the 
beauty of Godeschalcus' work and the spirit 
of pure and joyous reverence it exhibits, 
cause us to rank it in our canon of great 
mediaeval hymns. The opening verses of an 
original text which we quote below, fairly 
glow with the flush of joyous ecstasy. 



Cantemus Cuncti. 113 

I. Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc 

Alleluia. 
II. In laudibus aeterni regis haec plebs refulet, 

Alleluia. 
III. Hoc denique ccelestes chori cantent in altum 

Alleluia. 

IV. Hoc beautorum per prata paradisiaca psallat 

concentus Alleluia. 

V. Quin et astrorum micantia luminaria jubilent 

altum Alleluia. 

VI. Nubium cursus, ventorum volatus, fulgurum 
coruscatio et tonitruum sonitus dulce 
consonent simul. Alleluia. 

These vibrant strains have, happily for 
us, been caught and fixed in English in such 
wise that we may say, and for the first time 
in this series of articles, that the beauty 
of the Latin loses nothing in the transposi- 
tion of tongues, by Dr. Neale, the talented 
hymnologist. Even the difficult fourth 
verse is well rendered, as are also the yet 
more difficult twentieth and twenty-first 
verses, which are : 

XX. Nunc omnes canite simul Alleluia domino, 
Alleluia Christo pneumatique. 
Alleluia! 
XXL Laus Trinitati aeternae in babtismo domini 
quae clarificatur ; Hinc canamus : 
Alleluia ! 



H4 Seven Great Hymns 

The translation by Dr. Neale is : 

i. The strain upraise of joy and praise, Alleluia. 

2. To the glory of their King 

Shall the ransom'd people sing Alleluia. 

3. And the Choirs that dwell on high 
Shall re-echo through the sky Alleluia. 

4. They through the fields of Paradise that roam 
The blessed ones, repeat through that bright 

home Alleluia. 

5. The planets glitt'ring on their heavenly way, 
The shining constellations, join, and say Al- 
leluia. 

6. Ye clouds that onward sweep ! 

Ye winds on pinions light ! 
Ye thunders, echoing loud and deep ! 
Ye lightnings, wildly bright! 

In sweet content unite your Alleluia. 

7. Ye floods and ocean billows ! 

Ye storms and winter snow ! 
Ye days of cloudless beauty! 

Hoar frost and summer glow ! 
Ye groves that wave in spring, 

And glorious forests, sing Alleluia. 

8. First let the birds, with painted plumage gay, 
Exalt their great Creator's praise, and say 

Alleluia. 

9. Then let the beasts of earth, with varying 

strain, 



Cantemus Cuncti. 115 

Join in Creation's Hymn, and cry again Al- 
leluia. 

10. Here let the mountains thunder forth, sonor- 

ous, Alleluia. 

11. There, let the valleys sing in gentler chorus, 

Alleluia. 

12. Thou jubilant abyss of ocean, cry Alleluia. 

12. Ye tracts of earth and continents, reply Al- 
leluia 

14. To God, who all Creation made, 

15. The frequent hymn be duly paid : Alleluia. 

16. This is the strain, the eternal strain, the Lord 

of all things loves : Alleluia. 

17. This is the song, the heav'nly song, that 

Christ Himself approves : Alleluia. 

18. Wherefore we sing, both heart and voice 

awaking, Alleluia. 

19. And children's voices echo, answer making, 

Alleluia. 

20. Now from all men be out-pour'd 
Aleluia to the Lord ; 

With Alleluia evermore 

The Son and Spirit we adore. 

21. Praise be done to the Three in One. 
Alleluia ! Alleluia ! Alleluia ! Alleluia ! 

Following the Cantemus Cuncti came 
many hymns using this form and breathing 



n6 Seven Great Hymns 

its spirit. These have been divided, in sev- 
eral hymnals, into classes appropriate to 
seasons of the Christian year. Following 
the arrangement adopted in one of the best 
known of these collections, we find that 
Eastertide has a group of alleluiatic hymns 
of singular sweetness. The first of these 
is of unknown authorship, but its date has 
been fixed with more or less certainty as of 
the fourteenth century. Its words have, in 
the English version, had a wide popularity 
and it stands today among the most widely 
sung of Easter hymns. Its first verse is : 

Jesus Christ is risen today, 
Our triumphant holy day, 
Who did once upon the cross 
Suffer to redeem our loss. 

Alleluia ! 

The next Easter hymn derived from the 
alleluiatic sequence, in point of date of ori- 
gin, is that written in 1531 by Michael 
Weisse. Its first verse is : 

Christ the Lord is risen again ; 
Christ hath broken every chain ; 
Hark, angelic voices cry, 
Singing evermore on high. 

Alleluia ! 



Cantemus Cuncti. 117 

The next century saw in the Cluniac 
Breviary, in the year 1686, a new Easter 
hymn, a poem of unusual religious merit 
and not of slight literary merit and of uni- 
versal appeal. The opening stanza of this 
hymn is : 

Morn's roseate hues have decked the sky, 
The Lord has risen with victory; 
Let earth be glad, and raise the cry. 

Alleluia ! 

Another hymn of an approximate cen- 
turial date and of unknown authorship has 
long had place in the service of the Prot- 
estant Church. It opens thus : 

The strife is o'er, the battle done ; 
The victory of life is won ; 
The song of triumph has begun. 
Alleluia ! 

The succeeding century — the seventeenth 
— gave in 1757 a hymn of wide use and of 
merit in Gellert's words : 

Jesus lives ! thy terrors now 
Can no longer, death, appall us; 

Jesus lives ! by this we know 

Thou, O grave, canst not enthrall us. 
Alleluia ! 



n8 Seven Great Hymns 

We may not, however, quote more of 
these hymns, save to give the first lines of 
some of the more important of them. At 
Ascentiontide is sung: Hail the Day that 
Sees Him Rise * * * Alleluia; on Whit- 
sunday: To Thee, O Comforter Divine, 
* * * sing we Alleluia. On occasions of the 
funeral of a child is sometimes used : Let 
no Hopeless Tears be Shed * * * Alleluia. 
Other hymns of this alleluiatic succession 
may be found under the first lines of : Lord 
of the Harvest, it is Right and Meet; To 
Him Who for Our Sins was Slain; Sing 
Alleluia Forth in Duteous Praise, and 
Above the Clear Blue Sky. All these hymns 
have the refrain, Alleluia. This word is 
from the Hebrew word meaning Praise Ye 
Jehovah. In Hebrew usage it was not con- 
fined to doxological usage. It was some- 
times used at the beginning, sometimes at the 
end, of religious compositions, as a form- 
ula of praise. Among the examples of this 
double use may be cited Psalms 106 and 
117. The Psalms furnish abundant exam- 
ples of both usages. The nineteenth chapter 
of Revelation also affords examples of the 
Hebraic use. 



Cantemus Cuncti. 119 

We have now reached the close of the 
series of articles upon the great hymns of 
the church. We have limited our considera- 
tion to what may be called the mediaeval 
period of written history. However care- 
ful we have been in our seleciton, we are 
conscious that some of our readers will 
miss a favorite hymn, but our choice has 
been based upon the concensus of authori- 
ties, and we feel that it is justified. If we 
limit our article to seven great hymns, we 
shall omit a Greek hymn of rare beauty that 
demands inclusion in our canon, and we 
therefore give as the last of the poems which 
we present at this Lenten season the hymn 
which Dr. Neale has so beautifully trans- 
lated from the hymn which, in the ninth 
century, was written by a monk of the com- 
munity of Mar Saba : 

Art thou weary, art thou languid, 

x\rt thou sore distrest? 
"Come to Me," saith One, "and coming, 
Be at rest." 

Hath He marks to lead me to Him, 

If He be my guide? 
"In His feet and hands are wound-prints, 
And His side." 



120 Seven Great Hymns 

Is there diadem, as monarch, 

That His brow adorns? 
"Yea, a crown, in very surety, 
But of thorns." 

If I find Him, if I follow, 
What His guerdon here? 
"Many a sorrow, many a labor, 
Many a tear." 

If I still hold closely to Him, 
What hath He at last? 
"Sorrow vanquished, labor ended, 
Jordan past." 

If I ask Him to receive .me 
Will He say me nay? 
"Not till earth, and not till heaven 
Pass away." 

Finding, following, keeping, struggling, 

Is He sure to bless? 
Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs 

Answer, "Yes." 



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